There must be something strangely sacred about salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.Kahlil Gibran
Those of us who’ve suffered one or more devastating losses often describe grief as being like the ocean with pain and longing breaking over us in waves. At times, the sadness is overwhelming, and we feel as though we’re drowning. But over time, we learn to float, to keep our head above water. We begin to recognize when the big waves are coming and become better able to deal with them. Although we never escape the sadness, we learn to navigate the waters of grief and move forward into the life we create in the wake of our loss.
During my darkest days, I found that the wisdom and experience of other grievers helped me to re-enter the world. They showed me that life after the death of a beloved was possible, that I could begin to see beauty, find grace and feel hope, even joy. They helped me realize that love was all around me, and all I had to do was lean in.
At Salt Water, our community can help you find your equilibrium and begin to heal after an unbearable loss. As Barbara Kingsolver put it so beautifully in High Tide in Tucson:
What a stroke of luck. What a singular brute feat of outrageous fortune: to be born into citizenship in the animal kingdom. We love and we lose, go back to the start and do it right over again. For every heavy forebrain solemnly cataloguing the facts of a harsh landscape, there’s a rush of intuition behind it crying out: High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is.
We invite you to become part of our community. Share your story, ask a question, make a comment. We’d love to hear from you.
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Judy’s Legacy
Scott is the father of four grown children and a technology innovation professional, recreational cyclist, tenor, testicular cancer survivor and longtime advocate and volunteer in the cancer community. Judy, his wife of 26 years, died of multiple myeloma in 2013.
Find Your Reason
When my 25-year-old daughter died unexpectedly just two days after I buried my mother, I couldn’t imagine surviving the nightmare I found myself living. I kept telling my older daughter, “I can’t do this, I can’t do this …” to which she wisely replied, “Mom, you’re doing it.”
Give Yourself Permission …
Gracelyn’s dad Chris passed away suddenly in 2016. She works alongside her aunt Melody to create photography projects that highlight survivor stories under Luna Peak Company. Their most recent project, Snapshots of Life After Loss, photographs and interviews grief survivors from all walks of life to show what life after loss looks like.
The Wound Of Grief Is Where The Light Enters
After Donna died, I think my motivation was I needed to do it all to keep going in the way WWDD (What Would Donna Do). I wanted to be the person who Donna loved into being by being the person who did not let ‘things’ languish. I had our standards to maintain.
All Heart
After the death of my fifteen-year-old son Mitch, my world collapsed. The grief and the pain was a thousand times worse than anything I’d ever experienced.
Finding A New Normal
You’ve just lost someone very important in your life (including a pet). How do you get back to normal, back to functioning as it was before the loss? There’s no list to follow, and nothing that will work for everyone.
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